The Knight Foundation
“The flow of local news is as important as the flow of jobs, or the flow of traffic, or electricity. It is a resource essential to a properly functioning community – a resource we can no longer take for granted.” - Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation CEO and President
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a major investor in local journalism and media innovation. With the goal of helping to “define and meet the information needs of communities in a democracy,” Knight has invested $100 million in a Media Innovation Initiative in addition to its ongoing funding in journalist training, newsroom diversity, digital media and freedom of information. Among Knight’s initiatives is a five-year Community Information Challenge, which offers matching grants to foundations across America to support creative ways of informing and engaging communities. A recent grant went to the Hawaii Community Foundation for a project in partnership with PBS Hawaii.
On October 27, 2010, the APTS Grant Center hosted a conference call in order to learn more about the Knight Foundation’s groundbreaking work. The call featured Eric Newton, Vice President for the Journalism Program at the Knight Foundation, as well as Polly Talen, Program Director for the Community Information Challenge; Robert Pennybacker, VP of Creative Services at PBS Hawaii; and Kalowena Komeiji, Director of Communications for the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Over the past five years, the Knight Foundation has invested about $100 million in media innovation. The Knight News Challenge was created to fund media innovation projects, specifically digital innovation. The Knight Community Information Challenge has a slightly different approach than the Knight News Challenge. With the intention to increase the amount of money that is flowing into the nonprofit field to support news and information, it makes grants to local foundations.
While the Knight News Challenge is for public media, directly, to do innovative projects, the Community Information Challenge makes grants to community foundations to support local journalism initiatives. The focus of the call is the Community Information Challenge. Susan Patterson, who works on the Community Information Challenge at the Knight Foundation, said that the program seeks to build understanding of the importance of community news and information and hopes to do so through community foundations. Because communities are unique, the Community Information Challenge program is not looking for a specific kind of project. Instead, the program is looking for strong partnerships. Patterson emphasized that the Knight Foundation sees the program as growing a community of people who recognize that local news and information is imperative for communities. She recommended that stations interested in pursuing this funding begin by forming a relationship with their community foundations, since the program requires matching funds.
PBS Hawaii and the Hawaii Community Foundation received Community Information Challenge funds to create and implement a student news network project. Because there are so many rural communities in Hawaii, digital information sharing is important. PBS Hawaii has developed a virtual newsroom with more than 60 of Hawaii's middle and high schools participating. Students will learn standard journalism practices while producing news content throughout the state. PBS Hawaii will then air some of these broadcasts. The combination of Hawaii's statewide school system, PBS Hawaii's statewide audience and the PBS Hawaii CEO's interest in creating a 21st century educational initiative allowed the idea for this project to develop, and the partnership with the Hawaii Community Foundation allowed the two groups to compete for funding from the Knight Community Information Challenge.
Eric Newton, Vice President for the Journalism Program at the Knight Foundation stressed that news and information is just as much a part of a well-functioning community as anything else. As a result, more money is going to nonprofit journalism, from foundations, than ever before. The Community Information Challenge seeks to grow the understanding of the need for information in a community. Now, communities must ask, “What else could be happening?” Public broadcasting stations should connect with local foundations to stress the importance of local journalism and increase the understanding of its importance.
